Love First: Day 3 Recap and into Day 4

Day 3 was a most exciting day! Last night Miss Cynthia talked about God's great love for us. Our verse for the night was John 3:16  "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Many people have heard this verse but most seem unaware of what it really means. They don't realize that God giving His Son meant that Jesus died a horrible death for our sins. God loved us so much that He would make such a great sacrifice in order for us to be with Him forever, but only if we receive His free gift of salvation.
Last night many of our campers decided that they wanted to receive the free of Jesus into their lives. It was a privilege to talk to them and help them into God' forever family.

After a good night's sleep, we had a great breakfast with breakfast burritos and then it was off to our chapel time. After worship with the band and receiving our offering, Miss Cynthia talked more about God's love, but this time she talked about how God answers prayer. Some people think that if God doesn't do exactly what they want, they don't want anything else from Him, but that's dumb because even if God says, "No," to what we want, he has a different and sometimes better plan for us.We may not see it at the time as better, but because He loves us and He is God, He knows exactly what we need.

From chapel, we went to our recreation/team building games (today's game was "Caterpillar" ) followed by our church time.From there, we went to lunch and finally, we went on the lake hike where most everyone is now.

More exciting things to report later.

Love First: Day 3

Before I write about this morning's chapel, I want to give a shout out to our leaders: the Design Team, church leaders and counselors, as well as our Missionary Kids. Each one of these adults and teenagers has sacrificed a week of their time in order to minister to our Lightseekers campers. Last night, after the kids went to bed the Design Team met to go over the day and discuss how today could be better. After that meeting concluded, the MKs and their leaders met to to share their "God moments" and to have a short Bible study. (The Missionary Kids are teenagers who give of themselves to serve others here at camp - sometimes they do the grunt work of moving tables, helping out during chapel or assisting in the craft shop. ) I was blown away by the spiritual depth of these youth and their desire to love others and God before themselves. They truly are in the process of becoming like Christ in attitude and in action.

 This morning's chapel was a lot of fun. Miss Cynthia talked about 1 John 2:9 which tells us that a person who claims to be living in the light, but hates his brother or sister is living in darkness. She told us the story of "Clay" and how his Christian friends "Jennifer"  and "Tony"  who were mean and made fun of him for how he looked and dressed. But Clay, because he was allowing Christ to mold him into a new person, was able to influence his friends in a more positive direction. What a lesson! I am sure your campers will tell you their version of the story.

Right now, free-time is in full swing. Kinds are climbing the wall.,swimming, doing archery, crafts or hanging out at the snack bar. So much to do, but I need a nap with my last bit of freetime.

Love First: End of Day Two

The campers are really demonstrating God's love to one another this week. Those who have been helping out at OTS (Opportunity to Serve) during meals have been so kind to everyone -they are constantly bringing us water, busing our dishes, and picking up trash.

This morning, Cynthia told us a story about a duck and how a sister used her brother's mistake to make him feel guilty. She manipulated him by using his guilt over the duck's death to do her bidding. Every time she said, "Remember the duck," he felt terrible and missed out on the fun he could have enjoyed instead. Satan does this to us as well. He tries to make us feel guilty about the sin we have done, but the reality is that God forgives us completely when we confess to Him (1 John 1:9).

Tonight's message was about being the light in the midst of darkness. One person with the light can expose the deeds of darkness and can also light the way to God. Cynthia reminded the campers that we should not stand around and wait for others to be the light, but we need to take our light wherever God leads.

Today was a fun day but what we are learning about God will impact us forever. More tomorrow.

Love First

Hey Lightseekers Camp Followers! Yesterday we began another exciting week of camp at Mile High Pines. All 170 campers arrived safely and were greeted by a wonderful hamburger lunch. Then it was off to free time which seemed like it was over in a blink of an eye followed by a tasty chicken dinner. Of course, the best part of the day was our evening chapel. Ms. Karla and her band led our musical worship in which we sang all favorite worship songs -our campers really get into the motions and this is the loudest part of chapel. It really helped set the tone for our speaker, Cynthia Crane. She came with a big backpack that was filled with bricks that represented all the heavy burdens we carry around, but surprise! when we surrender them to Jesus our load becomes light. We can trust Him to take of them because He loves us so much. " We love Him because He first loved us." We are going to explore more of this as our them for the week is "Love First," so stay tuned for more details of our week as it happens.